For example, the step at the beginning where the amount of fuel is checked is a short step itself, but if there is insufficient fuel then the step becomes long because the gas station stop must be added to the total commuting time. A process improvement would be to move this step entirely to the commute home. Such a move is logical, because coming home there is less time pressure (i.e. there is no "late" coming home whereas there is a "late" time for arriving to work). Another step where adjustments could be made is at the coffee acquisition part of the process. The independent coffee shop is the preferred choice, but it has no drive-through so it takes longer to acquire coffee than if the Starbucks with the drive-through was selected. Coffee could also be made at home, allowing for further reduction in commuting time.
The process could also be improved through the choice of different routes. The usual route has a higher speed limit, but has some very long lights at a few shopping centers. If these lights are green, the trip can be very fast but usually these lights are red so on average the trip is long compared with another possible route on smaller roads...
The process therefore can be improved not only by making alternations to a number of different steps but also by changing the way that some of the steps are executed.
The first week of data is as follows:
Day
Time (mins)
Monday
45
Tuesday
39
Wednesday
35
Thursday
33
Friday
49
Appendix a: Driving to Work Flow Chart
Total time: From 35 mins to 54 mins
Arrive work and park
2 mins.
If no, take alt. route -- 7 mins
If yes, take usual route -- 3 mins
Traffic report favorable?
Freeway
9 mins.
If no, take alt. route -- 17 mins
If yes, take usual route -- 14 mins
Listen to traffic report -- favorable?
Drive to coffee
6 mins
Proceed to gas station
12 mins.
Is there fuel? Y go to coffee; N. go to gas station
Start car
1 min
